London-based Jeweller speaks about the fantasy and stark sensitivity in her work
“The German word ‘sehnsucht’ translates roughly as longing, or yearning for something which has gone and may never come back. There’s a nod to a certain romantic tradition, in my work – a sense of loss, or sense of something else out there. I’ve veered towards fantasy, and then I’ve pulled myself back, and tried to inject some sort of stark sensitivity, otherwise I would be away with the fairies, and there would be angel wings on everything. My focus on nature has come since leaving the countryside. Although it’s the idea of nature rather than a reference to actual nature, which I think comes from not being in it anymore. It becomes a longing for it, its absence makes it a focus.”
"There’s a nod to a certain romantic tradition, in my work – a sense of loss, or sense of something else out there"
A golden ribcage, a tiny sword, a miniature claw and an array of flowers: Noemi Klein’s small-yet-mighty jewellery pieces are an insight into her imagination, fusing a dark, nostalgic sadness often present in her work with a wicked sense of humour. The German-born, London-based designer began experimenting with silver as a child using her father’s dentistry equipment, before studying Silversmithing and Design at Central Saint Martin’s. Today her studio is based in east London and much of her work still comes from simple experimentation: “I learn by trying things out. The way the metal behaves when you heat it on a given day, for example, or the way certain things bubble up – I see that it looks almost like a moon surface, and then that makes me think of constellations – and it goes further like that.”
Klein’s work features in Made in London: Jewellery Now, an exhibition which launched today at the Museum of London. Co-curated by the museum’s Beatrice Behlen and AnOther’s fashion editor Agata Belcen, the show explores the processes and creative worlds of seven of London’s most talented designers, also including Jordan Askill, Imogen Belfield, Rachel Boston, Duffy, Husam El-Odeh, and Frances Wadsworth-Jones.
Made in London: Jewellery Now at the Museum of London runs until April 27, 2014
Text by Mhairi Graham
